


The New Infection

by CollateralDamage666



Category: Left 4 Dead, Prototype (Video Game)
Genre: Blood, Crossover, Gen, Guns, Infection, Violence, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-01-01
Updated: 2012-09-24
Packaged: 2017-11-14 23:56:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 19,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/520850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CollateralDamage666/pseuds/CollateralDamage666
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex now has a normal life, hasn't used his powers since Manhattan, and would like to keep it that way. However, it seems as if fate has a different plan for him. Now he has to choose between using his powers once more or remaining "human."</p><p> </p><p>Adopted story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: The Infection in Fairfield

**Author's Note:**

> So this is not originally my story. I adpoted it from Akako Hama on FanFiction.net, so credits go to her for the first six chapters. She has granted me permission to rewrite the chapters she has already done so I could give it my voice and whatnot, but I made sure not to change it drastically because that would just be stupid of me.

Alex Mercer growled in frustration as yet another Hunter leapt at him, intent on shredding him with its claws. He let his arms form into his own claws, and jumped out of the way to avoid the other's attack. Swiftly, he grabbed the infected, his claws digging into the flesh of the other's. He pulled it towards him and crushed its skulled, consuming the infected quickly, without any struggles, but frowned when he recognized the boy from the memories. "He's from the collage I taught at," he mused sadly, "He was the best in my class. Sure loved journalism."

The BLACKLIGHT infected man just shook off the humane feelings, not have the time for them at the moment, and sprinted down the street, looking for any other survivors. He skidded to a stop when he heard loud sobbing nearby, instantly realizing that it was a Witch, another special infected like the hunter. "Better take it slow, I don't need to startle this one," he said to himself, remembering his last encounter with the easily angered creature. After the startling attack, he had been heavily wounded and had to consume a Tank to recover from that incident. He slowly crept along, keeping an eye out for the crying infected. 'This isn't the same virus I have – am,' he thought, reminding himself that he was the BLACKLIGHT virus, just in the form of a human, 'Must be a new one, so it probably doesn't have any connections unless someone's meddling where they shouldn't again.'

He heard the Witch scream, her screech high and almost terrifying, followed by frantic shooting from someone's guns. Alex quickly ran to the area the commotion was coming from, rounding the corner right into the thick of the fight. He eyes immediately landed on a man that resembled a motorcyclist, with tattoos all along his arms, frantically trying to keep the Witch from severely injuring him as the other three tried to shoot her away from his as she continued her attacks. Alex quickly positioned his shotgun so it would be easy to fire at any time necessary and rushed over to help the group. He put the barrel right next to her head and blew the strong female infected's head off. He heard a gasp and turned to see a familiar face for once. A young woman with fair skin and brown hair pulled back in a ponytail was staring at him in shock.

"P-professor Mercer, is that you?" She asked hesitantly, taking a step forward to try and get a better look at his face.

"Zoey, I'm glad to see that all those horror games paid off for you," The virus joked the smallest of smiles curling his lips and getting one from her in return. He looked at the rest of the group which consisted of, besides the motorcyclist, an African American man wearing a white shirt with a bright, red tie, and what appeared to be an elderly, military soldier, complete with a military beret perched on top of his head.

"Are you with the military?" The BLACKLIGHT virus questioned the man, his primeval fears beginning to rise in him as he remembered the past, his own outbreak, and what he had done then to those who wore military garb.

"I retired a few years back," the elder replied, gruffly, "And I'm guessing you're a college teacher of sorts."

"Yeah, my name's Alex Mercer," the virus said, quickly getting his name out there.

"I'm Bill Overbeck," The veteran stated sharply.

"Frances," The biker huffed, his eyes darting around the area, still shaken up by the attack.

"Louis," The last male of the group said happily.

"So, anyone have any ideas how all this started?" Alex asked, his eyes moving from one to the other, gesturing loosely around them with a hand.

"Not really," Bill sighed, "We're all in the dark about this, too."

"Doesn't matter, I was just curious. I thought it might have been what was released in Manhattan," the sentient virus sighed. The memories of what happened the day of the infection coming back, and the guilt of consuming others was, well, starting to consume himself. Without warning, he was thrown back into memories of the time right before this infection had broken out. Oh, how they had been so happy and carefree that day.

* * *

_Alex sighed; annoyed when he noticed a certain student was sleeping in his class again. "Zoey Masters, I know you love staying up late playing horror games, but please try not to sleep in class," he sighed again as the girl woke up rather quickly, a piece of paper sticking to her face for a moment before it finally fluttered back down to rejoin her other papers._

_"S-sorry Professor Mercer, it won't happen again!" Zoey exclaimed, blushing when the rest of the class quietly laughed and her getting caught by the professor again._

_"That's enough out of all of you," Mercer ordered, "now let's continue the lesson. Jacob Williams, I believe you wrote a paper on the Manhattan incident from last year."_

_"Y-yes sir!" a black haired, green eyed boy exclaimed excitedly, already pulling his paper out and clutching it in his hands like it was a life line._

_Everyone jolted when an alarm sounded and an announcement rang over the intercom,_ _"_ Students, please remain where you are in class and do not leave your rooms. Professors, please report to the faculty room immediately. There is a riot just outside the buildings, but please remain calm. We will soon have the situation under control. _"_

_The students were completely silent as Alex left for the meeting, his eyes hard. He quickly sprinted out of the building, knocking over a few of the people in the riot as he tried to get around them. He felt something was wrong, something was off. They were acting way too similar to the infected civilians back from Manhattan. 'What the hell is going on?' he thought, his frown deepening as he broke free and picked up his pace._


	2. Chapter 1: The Outbreak Begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's another "rewritten" chapter. This is still in the past.

Alex opened the door to the faculty room to see a familiar Blackwatch soldier who was missing his left leg and leaning heavily on a crutch.

"Cross, it's been awhile," the virus addressed the man, looking at him with narrowed eyes. What was he doing here? His stomach seemed to drop at the prospects that came to his mind, each of them coming to one dreadful conclusion.

"I see you took the faster route, Mercer," Cross replied, "Which means you've seen the civilians outside."

"Yeah, they're like the infected back in Manhattan," Alex sighed, knowing where this was going, "Brings back some bad memories."

"They're different, though. There doesn't seem to be a hive mind this time around," The Blackwatch commander mused, "These people are more like human killing machines. They don't attack each other, but will attack anyone that isn't infected."

"So there is a virus at work after all, huh?" Mercer laughed bitterly, "It's like what happened a year ago has come back to bite me in the ass."

"Kinda funny to hear you say that, Mercer," Cross muttered, "There is one thing we've noted about these… 'things.' All of them out there died before they became like they are as you see them now. The walkers back in Manhattan were still somewhat alive, as the virus only bent them to Greene's will."

"Excuse me," a male professor with grey hair and blue eyes interrupted, entering the room, "But could you please tell us what is going on?"

"Sorry, but we need to evacuate everybody on campus one building at a time. We'll need your help with telling the students when they go," Cross then lowered his voice, so as to not be overheard, "Mercer, you'll be helping Blackwatch clear out the infected."

Alex frowned, ready to protest when he thought, 'He did get me this job, and convinced the press that I was framed for the outbreak. I owe him this much,' so he just nodded grimly in reply, leaving the room so he could slip into a shadowed corner and change back into his regular getup, the way he looked back in Manhattan. It only seemed right to do so.

* * *

Zoey observed her fellow students as everyone in the class sat around nervously, staring around the classroom. There hasn't been a riot on the campus for many years now, at least since before Zoey had been going to school here.

"This is bad, I think I saw Professor Mercer run outside," a blonde girl, whose name was Amy, muttered, staring out the windows she sat by.

Most of the others looked shocked at what she said, and the game addict stood up to look out the windows to see the military preparing evac vehicles. Soon the entire class was pressed up against the glass, staring out at the scene in front of them. It was like watching something you only saw in the movies, a surreal moment descended over them as they stood in silence. The intercom screeched to life, scaring a few students and making them freeze in place in horror when the principle announced for their building to evacuate to safety.

* * *

Alex grinned, unable to keep his raw, murderous glee down as he shredded an infected with his claws. He scraped the weapons along the concrete, a noise worse than nails on a chalkboard rising over the masses. The noise got the rest's attention, and the zombie-like creatures ran at him, screams erupting from their throats. He gathered his biomass for a devastator, and soon many tendrils shot out of his body, impaling half of the infected. They drew back in and he switched to his blade, efficiently slicing through the creatures, causing their numbers to fall fast. He turned to see that they were now evacuating the last building, and returned to his work. He run running low on biomass now, thanks to the devastator, but he didn't plan on trying to get it to rise any quicker.

'There's no way I'm consuming any of these things.' he thought, 'I could never stand consuming anything in the first place.'

He sliced an infected in half, before decapitating another. He frowned and switched to Musclemass, tearing a few more in half for good measure.

* * *

Zoey frowned deeply as the covered truck drove through the city, avoiding the masses of people. She watched all of the people killing what look like nothing but panicking civilians. She winced when she saw one person get his throat ripped out by a pale woman.

"I-I think I saw Professor Mercer out there," Amy whispered once more, her eyes staring out the back of the truck, wide in fright.

Suddenly they heard a thump from the front of the truck, shattering glass, and bloodcurdling shriek. The students screamed in fear as the truck started to turn sharply before rolling onto its side. The game addict hit her head on the metal and lost consciousness.

A few hours later she woke up to see a worried old man standing nearby. She groaned and tried to sit up, holding her throbbing head in her hands. She could feel a lump on the side of her head where she had hit it, but there was no blood.

"Wh-what happened?" she managed to croak out, her throat dry.

"I found you in that crashed truck over there," he pointed over his shoulder at the crumpled vehicle, tipped on its side, "Everyone else was dead and I couldn't find the driver," the man sighed, "What caused the crash?"

"We heard something land on the truck and break the window. There was a scream before the vehicle went out of control… I honestly don't know what the hell is going on," she replied, her forehead furrowing as she tried to fight back the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes. Everyone else was dead?

* * *

Alex frowned when he found the remains of yet another evac vehicle. His eyes narrowing when he heard animalistic growling coming from behind him. He quickly turned, ready to fight when a teen in a hoodie jumped at him. Without hesitation, he drove his claws into the infected's face, instantly killing it. Throwing it off of his weapons, he returned to looking around the area before moving on to find any survivors.

* * *

A man that resembled a biker, ducked as a long tongue tried to wrap around his neck. He cursed heavily, tumbling behind a dumpster to hide from the creature.

"Francis, be careful!" An African American man called out to him. The dark skinned man wore a business shirt and dress pants, though the sleeves were rolled up so he wouldn't overheat from all the running.

"I know, Louis!" Francis shouted back, stepping out for a second to fire the handgun he had tucked in the back of his jeans at the assailant. The creature had a long tongue, strange swollen skin and smoke seemed to come out of it. Louis ducked back into his hiding place as the infected tried to grab him again. He peeked out again, shooting at it with another handgun. Soon the creature exploded in a cloud of smoke, finally dead, and the two survivors finally got to relax.

"That was close," the motorcyclist sighed, sitting on a nearby bench.

"Agreed," the other said, "I hope we don't run into another one of those… things."

* * *

**/5 days later/**

Zoey almost screamed when an overweight infected tried to puke on her, dodging the vomit before it hit her. Bill shot at it, soon causing the large creature to explode, spraying them with its insides. The two froze when they heard a cry nearby, and quickly moved into a safer position, guns ready.

"I can't believe the hordes found us again. We killed that thing before it puked on us," the college student hissed between clenched teeth.

"I guess some of it got on us when it exploded," The elder replied, "We need to keep our distance from those things."

The two broke off the conversation as the horde arrived, before they could start shooting two men ran out of a nearby building. They looked at them, nodded, and the four began taking out each infected in the horde. Soon the last creature fell and Bill approached the two.

"Glad to see other survivors out here," the biker stated, relieved to see more humans rather than the dead.

* * *

**/Two weeks after the outbreak in Fairfield/**

Zoey sighed as they opened the door to the safe room, ready to move on to even more dangerous areas. They left one at a time, keeping a lookout for any infected in the area. They slowly made their way to the street, listening for any telltale signs of the special infected, the worst kind to run into. They began running after they made sure the roads were clear, and soon reached an abandoned convenience store.

"If anyone finds a radio we can use to call for help, let the rest know," Bill ordered, opening the door as silently as he could while the rest of them nodded in reply.

* * *

Alex ran as fast as he could as a female infected with long claws tried to slash his arm off again. 'Why did I get so close?' he mentally asked himself, I've gotten too rusty to do this like I used to.'

He leapt up onto a top of the building and used the pause before she, too, arrived up there with him, to change to his power to Hammerfists. As soon as she reached the same level as him and ran towards him, her screech still deafening, he slammed his fist into the ground, sending her flying back off the roof. He ran forward, jumping into the air and mentally targeted her. He shifted midair and dropped down at a terrifying speed, slamming her into the ground beneath him. Immediately her screams died as her chest ruptured, splattering the virus in blood. Standing up, he wiped away the splatter that had landed on his face and turned his back to the gruesome sight.


	3. Chapter 2: The Appearance of a Mind

Alex sighed as he took in his surroundings. He could see a small coffee shop, gas station, flower store, and apartment complexes all around him. The place had a hint of familiarity to it, but he couldn't quite figure out why.

'I must be near the edge of downtown,' he thought, 'Perhaps I'm near my own apartment. Better see what street I'm on.'

Looking around, he found a green street sign that said 'George St.' and shrugged in disappointment, not recognizing the street name. He had guessed wrong about his apartment and had really been looking forward to relaxing in a familiar space. Maybe some other day. The BLACKLIGHT virus twitched when he heard a loud roar, reminding him of the Hunters. He had hated those pesky things back in Manhattan, but before he could get too far into his memories or the Web of Intrigue to go over the creature, the ground began to shake. When the virus looked for the source, he saw an infected with a massive upper body, all muscles, charging at him. He easily jumped over its head, taking noticing that it had a missing lower jaw, as if it had been ripped off.

The creature roared again, charging once more, trying to ram Alex, who easily jumped over its head again. He quickly checked to see if any survivors were nearby using thermal vision before turning his right arm into the blade. The flesh had turned a twisted black, fusing with his jacket and at the elbow a large sword took place of his forearm, a smaller blade shooting from the other side. He ran up the side of an apartment complex before jumping down and swinging at the creature, only to be swatted the side by one of its large, bulky arms.

'Damn, that thing could give a military tank a hard time!' Mercer thought, quickly dodging a thrown car.

The alarm went off, causing the virus to twitch angrily. Of course that thing would throw the only car in the area that had an alarm. An idea came to him as he watched the withering horde scream towards him. With all of the infected, he might be able to pull off a devastator. Alex waited, gathering the biomass in his body for the attack, dodging cars and rocks when needed. When the horde was close enough, he unleashed the attack, tendrils flying from his body, impaling everything in range including the larger infected from earlier.

* * *

Zoey stared at the tendrils that had exploded out farther down the street in front of them, killing the Tank and the rest of the weaker infected that had been running for the blaring car. The things pulled back letting the bodies drop and then they heard the sound of something running on stone and glass.

"I do not want to find out what did that," Francis said aloud, saying what was on everyone else's mind at that moment.

"Whatever it is, it's gone now," Bill added, checking the area for any other infected.

"So where to now?" Louis asked, "I think I saw a safe house a few streets over that way," he pointed in the direction he meant which was, fortunately, in the opposite direction of wherever that creature from before had gone, "It was on one of the military maps in that meeting room."

"Then we should go there for now, it's getting late," the college student said and, as one, they moved in the direction of the safe house.

* * *

Alex groaned as he rested against the wall in the military safe house, watching the military prepare to search for survivors. He examined the fenced walls holding back the infected, and tanks blowing apart the special infected interspersed in the others, some waiting back by the edge of the group. The building behind him was large enough to hold the population of the nearest cities, and anymore after would be flown to other bases in neighboring cities and states.

"I know you hate consuming other creatures, but it seems like you need to start doing it again," Cross stated, limping over, "We need to figure more out about these things and your consuming power should do the job."

"Hell no," was Alex's reply, followed by an icy glare.

"You'll end up dying out there if you don't and then what'll your sister do?" The one legged man questioned, eyebrow raised, "Besides, we did some tests, seems that something may actually be controlling these things. Only way to know is to look into their heads, which you can do by consuming them."

"I hate you."

"Whatever, Mercer."

* * *

The living virus growled as he consumed another common infected in the ally by the old gun store, finding nothing in its memories.

'This is the twentieth one I consumed!' he mentally shouted if frustration, "What exactly does Cross want from me? Maybe if I tried a special infected…'

The coughing of a Smoker caught his attention and he turned, quickly grabbed the tongue that shot out towards him, almost grinning as it tried to drag him back to itself.

'I guess it is a good thing I consumed those things, I hated it but now I'm too heavy for this ugly guy,' He thought, calmly walking over to the infected, continuing his hold on the tongue as though it were a leash.

When he finally smashed his fist through the thing's head, the only thoughts in the Smoker's mind were scattered, confused. He only got the memory of its last thoughts, a jumbled mess of surprising fear and wonder.

"I had no idea that these things could think," he laughed to himself.

He froze when he heard the sound of a belch behind him and turned, immediately getting drenched in a Boomer's puke. He grimaced and stabbed the thing in the stomach with his claws, causing it to explode. While he scraped off some of the puke, he heard the sounds of a horde approaching from far-off.

"I will never consume one of those things," He said to himself, wiping off more of the liquid and jumping onto a rooftop to get away from the running infected. A block away, he heard the sound of an approaching helicopter and turned, shielding his eyes from the bright searchlight aimed right at him from the front of the flying machine.

"Mercer, did you find anything out about what's controlling these things?" Cross called out over an intercom, his voice clear in the night air. Alex shook his head in reply and he could almost see the frown appear on Cross's face without actually seeing him.

There was a pause before his voice rang out again, "We saw a few survivors off to the East. Try to get them to an evac zone, Mercer!"

He got no reply from Alex, who was already running of in the direction indicated.

**/end of flashback/**

Back in the present, Alex was snapped out of his own memories when Louis called his name, and looked at the four expectantly.

"Let's go before more infected find us," Bill ordered, already moving on.

The virus followed, taking in their surroundings and saw mostly business buildings around them and some abandoned banks.

'Must be a business district,' he thought to himself, keeping his stride slower to stay with them.

A dark figure looked over the group from far off shadows, not one of them noticing the stalking presence. The figure's grin grew upon spotting BLACKLIGHT, and the thing vanished back into the shadows without a sound.


	4. Chapter 3: No Mercy

Alex stared into the alley, looking for the source of the crying. He knew a Witch was nearby, but they couldn't see where it was. When Zoey started to move towards the source, worry on her face, he stopped her by grabbing her arm, shaking his head.

"That's an infected, not a survivor, it will attack if you get too close," he whispered, "You haven't run into a Witch before?"

She looked at him in surprise, and then looked at the others. Francis was still slightly wary of the college professor for some reason, yet he did not directly voice it.

"How do you know that?" the biker questioned, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"I was nearly torn apart by one that I thought it was another survivor, crying, so I approached it. It was startled by the light on my flashlight. Luckily I managed to keep my distance when it chased after me and finally killed it after using up almost all my ammo," the virus explained, keeping his face stoic throughout the lie, "Luckily a safe house was nearby so I could replenish it.

"So how dangerous are they?" Louis asked.

"These crying ones are fast, strong, and pretty good at climbing," Alex explained, "It took out a Hunter that got in the way in one hit."

Alex noticed their shocked faces at his words, and the college student's slightly relieved face that he had stopped her from continuing towards the noise. He rolled his eyes slightly at their expressions, and started heading through the alley carefully, his eyes darting about. There was quite a bit of trash in the area, as well as a fire escape, a good place for infected to hide. He froze when he heard a Smoker's coughing and spun around when he heard Bill shout for help. Before he could do anything, Francis killed the special infected as more common infected entered the alleyway. They quickly mowed them down and continued on their way.

A helicopter flying overhead caught Louis's attention and he ran after it, ignoring Alex's warnings to stay with the group.

The man began shouting and waving his arms at the passing helicopter, "Wait we're down here!"

Unknown to him a hooded infected started crawling around the corner and spotted him. The Hunter thought of him as only a new kill and leapt at him in hopes of tearing him apart. The creature was blown back by a shotgun shot in the head, falling to the ground dead. They others joined in as Alex checked to make sure the infected really was dead. All five froze when a car out on the street started letting out an alarm because an infected had run into it, calling a horde. As the infected got closer, a roar rang out, causing the virus to growl.

"Damn it, a Tank." he hissed.

The overly muscled infected shoved the smaller ones aside as it ran at them.

"Shoot or run?" Louis asked, already backing up, "Shoot or run!"

"Both!" Alex roared, already heading for the fire escape as he shot behind them. The other four followed him and climbed up as the Tank got closer. Soon only Zoey was on the fire escape, and the large infected was causing the metal to fall from the building. She desperately leapt for the building, holding out a hand, and was caught by Louis, who hoisted her up to join them. The group sat to rest as the helicopter flew overhead again.

"If there are any survivors out there, head for Mercy Hospital!" the pilot called out, his voice spilling out of some speakers. Alex frowned as he looked over the area on the roof, checking for any infected.

"I think we can rest for a few seconds," he stated, leaning against the door that opened up onto the rooftop.

"Shouldn't we get moving? They said to go to Mercy Hospital," Louis frowned.

"We won't live long if we're worn out," Bill explained, "We should at least catch our breath first and tend to any wounds."

"Professor, I never got the chance to ask you this," Zoey started as they all sat down to relax for once, "But one of my classmates said she saw you fighting with the military when the infection came to campus. Is that true?"

"I used to be in the military back before my sister got sick. I had to leave due to certain circumstances. That's when I got my job at the college," the virus replied, hoping she'd believe yet another one of his lies. He couldn't just go and say 'Oh, I'm just bioweapon that gained a mind of its own and I decided to help fight off the infected because Cross told me to.'

"You could've just taken a vacation," Bill stated, suspicious, "You didn't have to leave."

"I was told she could fall ill again at any moment and I didn't want to risk leaving her alone for too long," Alex shrugged, still hoping they would believe him.

"The same thing happened to my aunt," Louis mused, not knowing he just helped the virus keep his secret.

"Why not have her stay with some relatives?" Francis continued to argue, still not completely believing the story.

"Our parents died awhile back, and we haven't been in contact with anyone else in our family for years," the lies were getting easier for Alex.

"That does make sense, I guess," Zoey sighed, looking over the streets, "I think we've relaxed enough here for now. Let's go."

* * *

The cloaked woman let a dark grin cross her face, "Let's see if I can make this a little more difficult for them."

She raised her arm up and the roars of Tanks and the cries of Hunters could be heard in the distance. With a chuckle she leapt off the small convenient store she had been standing on top of as five Hunters ran off towards the five survivors. One for each.

* * *

Alex growled as he ran through the office building, trying to find the others. Five Smokers had decided to team up and drag him away from the others. He had managed to kill all but one, who fell to its death.

"Why did they suddenly change tactics?" he asked himself, pushing a random infected out the window by hitting it with the butt of his gun.

He heard the screech of a Hunter, accompanied with Francis screaming like a girl, and ran in that direction. He caught site of two Hunters tearing at him as the rest tried to get them off. Zoey managed to shoot one in the head just as Alex tackled the other, letting go just in time for him to stop himself from going out the window. The Hunter he had tackled wasn't so lucky. It screeched as it fell, before suddenly cutting off after hitting the ground with a thud.

"Where did you come from?" Bill exclaimed, breathing heavily, "I thought those Smokers got you! They pulled you off so fast and then other infected swarmed over us before we could come after you."

"I got lucky, I guess. They started fighting over who would kill me or something like that. I used that to my advantage and managed to knock three of them out a window. The other two had already killed each other," the virus lied.

"You got real lucky," the biker groaned, bandaging his torn sides with Louis's help.

"You know, you should try being more careful, Francis," The business man stated, ignoring the furious glare from the biker he got in reply.

Alex felt a chill go down his spine and he quickly looked around for a second, trying to find the source of the strange feeling. 'That almost felt like… It couldn't be, I killed them both.' Shaking off the feeling, he quickly checked the area for any more infected hanging around.

Bill gave him a strange look, while deep in thought, 'That guy's hiding something, I know it.'


	5. Chapter 4: No Mercy Part 2

Zoey quietly checked the rooms nearby, grinning slightly when she found an AK-47 and a bag of ammo for it alongside a shotgun shoved in a corner, almost out of sight. She heard Bill call saying he found some extra pistols in another room and quickly moved to get one. Francis was sending Alex glares as the college professor checked his ammo supplies, only to stop when some extra shotgun ammos was handed to him.

"Thanks, I guess," the biker huffed, taking them and putting them in his pocket.

"We should hurry up," the virus sighed, looking out the nearby window, "The infected are starting to gather outside."

They quickly ran down the office building's halls, carefully checking the stairs before descending. The five froze when they heard crying, and the veteran hissed, "Lights off."

They quickly shut off their flashlights and they found themselves in a pitch dark hallway.

"Damn, it's gonna be hard getting through here." the biker growled, squinting.

Alex remained quiet, he could see just fine, yet he knew it would be suspicious if anyone found out. The group slowly searched for the exit to the building and finally found one with the Witch right in front of the door, sobbing into her clawed hands.

"Shit, this is bad," Francis growled quietly, "We need to get her away from there."

"I could lure her away," Alex suggested, face blank as he continued to stare at the infected.

"Are you nuts?" Bill hissed, "If she's anything like you said, she'll kill you!"

"Francis could distract her while I blow her head off with my shotgun instead," The virus sighed, "Or I distract her and Francis shoots."

"So either way, someone could die," Zoey frowned.

"I'll shoot her, she sounds like my ex-girlfriend," the biker growled, bringing up his gun. The two moved up, Alex walking in front of the witch as the other moved to shoot her from behind. The crying infected looked up, a growl in her throat as she was approached. Her eyes glowed in the darkness. Getting up on her feet, hunched over as she growled louder, her breathing became heavy. Without another warning, she let out a yell and ran forward, trying to attack Alex, causing the biker to rush in and shoot her in the back of the head for an instant kill. Alex let out a sigh of relief when the body hit the ground, motioning for everyone behind them to get moving. They exited into an alley and carefully looked around for any more infected nearby. Seeing none, they quickly, yet carefully, moved forward.

The group soon reached the streets, picking off the few creatures meandering there as they moved forward. The cry of a hunter reached their ears and the virus was pinned down as the infected ripped through his sides. No one noticed the tendrils of biomass slowly healing the wounds as they appeared, as they were too busy trying to get the creature off. Once the hunter was knocked off, Alex forced the tendrils to stop healing him, knowing that it would be suspicious if he had no injuries after that attack.

"It's not as bad as it looks," Louis stated, looking over the wound, "I'm sure you'll be OK."

"That's good," the virus muttered wrapping bandages around his sides, "I thought for sure I'd been in worse condition after that."

He glanced out of the corner of his eyes at Bill, who seemed to be deep in thought after the attack.

"That should have been worse with the way that hunter was tearing up your sides," the veteran murmured, "I guess its claws must have been dull or something."

'Not good, Bill's going to figure it out sooner or later. That or he'll say I'm turning into an infected,' BLACKLIGHT thought, 'I have to be more careful around him and make sure I don't use any inhuman abilities, including healing.'

They carefully moved on, Zoey carefully checking the area ahead before giving the OK. Francis also seemed to be wary of the teacher, keeping a suspicious eye on him.

"What?" the virus growled at the biker after a while.

"Nothing," the biker replied, eyes narrowed. As they moved towards the subway entrance, Alex spotted a car with an alarm light flashing in it.

"Careful around that car, if the alarm goes off, every infected in the area will come after us," he whispered.

He noticed that an infected was standing were if it got hit from a certain angle the alarm would go off. He carefully moved into a better position and used his pistol to blow its head off. Unfortunately the body slumped onto the car, setting the alarm off anyway, followed by a cry of a horde.

"Fuck!" the veteran exclaimed, eyes wide, "Here they come!"

"Get into the subway!" Francis shouted, already running down the stairs. The rest followed just as the first infected showed up, crying out when it spotted the survivors. The group felt relief flood through them when they spotted a safe house ahead, rushing to it as Alex fired his pistol behind him in hopes of slowing down the horde chasing them.

The biker was the first in, followed by Bill, then Louis, and Zoey. The virus was trying to take out the closest infected before entering the room.

"Professor Mercer, hurry up!" The student called, worry in her voice.

Alex fired two more shots and dived into the safe house before any of the horde could reach him, the rest of the group closing the door with a bang.

"That was some jump." the leather clad man stated, leaning over to catch his breath.

"You'd be surprise what adrenaline can do," the virus replied, panting slightly, though he wasn't out of breath, "A woman managed to lift a car during an adrenaline rush just to save her kid."

"I heard about that," the African American said, "That was pretty amazing."

"Enough talk, we should rest while we have the chance," the veteran ordered, laying out one of the sleeping bags that were supplied. The rest of the survivors followed suit, and thirty minutes later all five were resting, though their sleep was light with the sounds of the infected outside.


	6. Chapter 5: No Mercy Part 3, Preparing for the Next Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's the final rewritten chapter. Everything after this will be completly new and 100% my own... well, except for the fact that I don't own Prototype or Left 4 Dead.

Zoey groaned as she was shaken awake by one of the other survivors, and slowly sat up, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. She looked to see that Louis was currently moving to wake the others, starting with Alex. The professor's bandages needed to be changed soon, so she removed the last of the medical supplies from her first aid kit, vaguely noting that there were replacements on a nearby table.

"Hey Alex, get up," the man whispered, nudging the virus' shoulder gently, there was no need to aggravate the man's wounds, "We need to get moving soon."

Ice blue eyes snapped open and Alex quickly shot up into a defensive stance, only to relax when he realized that it was one of his companions.

"Need help waking the others?" The virus asked, rolling his shoulders a bit to get out some of the knots that had formed during his sleep.

"I got it. Right now we need to change those bandages," the store manager replied, "We can't let those wounds get infected, especially since this outbreak is almost as contagious as that virus in New York."

"Yeah," Mercer mentally frowned at the reminder of New York. He could still remember when Dana was kidnapped and dragged off by that hunter. He took a seat on a nearby stool, and began unwrapping the bandages around his torso, mentally relieved that he didn't heal himself in his sleep. He knew that it was best to keep a low profile, especially since Bill was an ex-solder who may have some knowledge on the outbreak in New York. At least more than civilians had, anyway.

"How does it look?" Francis asked, he may not trust the guy but he was a good shot and that was all that he cared about at this moment.

"It's not swollen, the bleeding has stopped, and the skin around the wound is normally colored, so I should be fine." Alex explained, carefully wrapping his torso with the bandages Zoey had gotten out. His sensitive ears were picking up the cries of the infected as he tended to unnecessary wounds, and he made a mental note to be wary about being injured. He knew that taking a fatal blow and shaking it off like it was nothing was bound to get him a bullet in his head, even if it was nothing serious for him.

'Let's see, these things are more intelligent than the infected in New York, added to the fact that they have several different mutations when compared to the hunters and hydras,' he mentally mused, 'The normal infected are pretty easy to take out, it's the variant mutations that are dangerous, those Tanks are a pain with powers, and even worse without them. Witches seem to target me for some reason, while I'm too heavy for a single Smoker to drag off. Boomers are a mild annoyance since their bile attracts the infected, and they explode when killed, splattering everything nearby in bile. Hunters, while not as powerful as Elizabeth Greene's version, are fatal to a lone survivor. I just hope Cross got Dana to safety as she's still suffering from whatever variant of REDLIGHT she was infected with, though Ragland did manage to create a suppressant for BLACKLIGHT and its mutations.'

"What's on your mind?" Bill asked, glancing over at Alex and taking his eyes off the files he was looking at, which he had found on one of the desks, hoping he could find something useful amongst the papers shoved inside.

"I'm comparing this outbreak with the one in New York," the virus tried to explain, "But there are too many deviances for the two viruses to be connected. The mutations in the infected here are completely different than the ones that occurred in New York. Plus the special infected seem to have a higher intelligence than any of the rest of these… zombies."

"How exactly do you know all this?" Francis questioned, eyes narrowed.

"I… lived in New York during the outbreak," BLACKLIGHT explained, "I saw the infected there because the military made me fight there, since it was convenient for them, I guess. They seemed to have a hive mind, but these things we're encountering now are acting on pure instinct instead of someone's commands."

"Must have been horrible living there," Louis frowned.

"This is worse," the sentient virus added, "Things here don't add up, last time I saw Cross, he said he believed that this was a mutation of BLACKLIGHT."

"BLACKLIGHT?" the veteran repeated, "That's odd."

"What is?" Zoey asked.

"I found a file awhile back in another safe house, much like the file I'm reading now," he held up the file in his hand as though to prove his point, "before I met up with the rest of you about that virus," the ex-soldier explained.

"What exactly did it discuss?" Alex frowned inwardly, worrying that this man knew too much. There was a reason why little to no information was given to the public about the outbreak in New York. They wanted to keep it all on the down low for a reason.

"Just symptoms, nothing much else was in the file."

Relief flooded the virus's mind. At least he didn't have to worry about Bill exposing him for being the virus itself in the shape of a human.

'That would make an interesting conversation,' he laughed in his head at the thoughts and images that came to mind, 'After all, it's not every day you fight alongside an intelligent virus against other infected beings.'

"Francis, did you change those bandages of yours yet?" The African American asked, noticing that the biker's bandages were completely soaked through with his blood.

"No," Francis replied gruffly with a sigh and, under the intense glare sent his way, he opened his first-aid kit and went to work wrapping up his wounds.


	7. Chapter 6: Into the Shadows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the first chapter that's new, 100% written by me. I hope you guys like it. :)
> 
> It was only going to be around 1,000 words long (the length the other chapters were, basically) but it didn't play out as such and just kept expanding. It's not as long as my other chapters usually are for my other stories, though.

Alex shot one last zombie through the bars on the door before lifting the bar set on the door, letting it fall to the floor with a clatter. The noise didn't alert any zombie to their presence, so he threw the door open, pistols at the ready, his shotgun slung over a shoulder. He turned abruptly to the left, letting his gaze flit over the area while the others covered the right. Finding both areas clear they moved forward at a steady pace, guns always at the ready to fire at any stray infected that dared grace their vision.

Firing off a few shots, Alex downed a few infected, turning swiftly when he heard the telltale cough of a Smoker somewhere on the buildings above them. He moved his pistols upwards, turning on his thermal vision. If the infected had any sort of heat… he glanced over the area, glad to see that the zombies glowed an orange color along with the survivors. There was more in common with these zombies with the ones in Manhattan than he thought. These creatures were somewhat alive, too. These were just more stupid.

His eyes darted back up to the rooftops, the Smoker standing out now up above them. He raised one of his pistols and aimed meticulously, finding just the right spot and pulled the trigger. As the bullet tore through the infected's brain, he couldn't stop the smirk that creeped onto his face.

"Headshot," he chuckled, his voice low as he lowered the gun to shoot at an infected running towards him. He brought up his other pistols, taking out one zombie after the other. Multiple roars rose up in the air. A horde was coming. He spent the rest of his bullets on the remaining zombie and quickly reloaded his guns just as the first of the horde began to come around the corner from one side, another group climbing over a chain-link fence behind them.

Bill ran over to Alex's side, giving him a curt nod before they both open fired on the oncoming infected, ripping apart the infected running towards them. Behind them, the others were doing the same with the other oncoming infected. The shots began to space out until, finally, they dissipated entirely. They stood there, still coming down from their adrenaline rush until Alex moved back into action, walking back the way they had come, pistols at the ready. The other survivors followed, disciplined like dogs even if they didn't trust the man. They could still see a strong survivor walking in front of them; their distrust didn't cloud their eyes of that.

The walked through an open doorway, moving through the rooms, shooting anything that moved with glowing eyes. Emerging from the other side, they found themselves in front of a large warehouse. A gas station was off to the other side of the open space. Alex spotted a lift next to the warehouse that would raise them up to the rooftops, easy access to the large open window. He took off at a run across the area, shoving an infected out of the way and continuing his pace.

He jumped onto the lift and made his way over to the button, waiting for the others to join him. Shooting the infected that followed them, they quickly joined him on the lift, taking care of the stray few that tried to join them on it.

"Things are about to get noisy," Alex warned before pressing the up button. True to his words, a large screech went out as the lift came to life, its joints unused unkept and unused for a while. Immediately, screams of the infected went though the air and they could see hordes of them making their way towards their location. Some were even climbing over the rooftops of the warehouse, jumping down to the area they were going to. Alex scooted past the others to the other side of the lift, a plan in mind.

Setting the gas station in his sights, he leveled his pistols, firing rounds at the building until, finally, he got the results he had been hoping for. With a loud explosion that shook the very air around them, the gas station ignited, shrapnel flying though the air and killing all infected in the area around it. A few of them ran by, their flesh being consumed by fire, before they fell to the ground dead, leaving nothing but a charred corpse.

"Jeez, give us a little warning next time, will ya, Professor," Zoey said, shaking her head a little to try and stop the ringing in her ears. He just smirked and made his way back to the other side of the lift again, where infected were jumping down onto it, trying to attack them from the side. Bill was doing the best he could and was managing to keep them at bay, but that didn't mean that he couldn't use some help.

The lift screeched to a stop and they all hopped onto the roof, shooting at those that were above them, those below, and those at the same level, all while making their way over to the window. Some of the infected were using the abandoned semi-trucks to jump onto the room, scrambling up to meet them, only to be shot back down to the top of the truck below, a pile of corpses soon building on the back of the vehicle.

"Boomer!" Francis cried out, seconds before he shot the infected, watching it explode in a mist of blood and bile. Luckily, they were far enough away that they didn't get any of the bile of them, otherwise another horde of zombies would have been upon them. The ones coming now were thinning out, almost completely gone. It was time to continue on to the next area.

They jumped through the open window, checking the gaping hole in ground for any infected waiting below. Alex dropped through it first, letting his flashlight dance over the surroundings. They were in an office room now, discarded chairs and desks littered the room. The others joined him and together, they moved to the door, taking out any infected that hovered by it on the other side.

"Ammo over here," Zoey called softly and Alex turned to see her standing next to a desk with a pile of ammo on the wood surface. They made their over to it, quickly replenishing their supply, shoving extras in every free pocket. Once stocked up again, they continued on their way, words never passing between them. Now wasn't the time for that. Besides, right now eyes were all they needed to send messages amongst themselves, silent signals sent though the air.

Navigating their way through the building, going down staircase after staircase, they finally found themselves in a room with white tanks in it. Low grunting and growling made them all curse under their breaths, peeking out into the room. There was a Tank somewhere in here, but they couldn't tell where it was. The few infected hanging out in the room quickly made their presence known, only to be shot down seconds after they started screaming and running toward them.

Alex motioned for them to wait, crouching down and stalking out into the room. He shoved his pistols into the back of the waist of his pants, choosing to use his shotgun instead of the small guns that would be useless against the Tank when it decided to charge out at them. He spared a glance back at the group, all of them looking at him, scared. Zoey was even motioning for him to return. In that split second of looking away, the Tank let out a roar, crashing out of its hiding place.

He managed to dive out of the way just as it charged past him, one of its fists connecting with the white tank he had been standing in front of, denting the metal and almost destroying it entirely. Alex let out a low whistle as he watched the creature bash through everything like it was nothing. It reminded him a little bit of himself, actually. Of course, he was more destructive, not that he would be able to put his skills to use in this fight.

The others shot at the creature, backing away from its onslaught, toward the stairs leading up once more. Making a plan in seconds, Alex dived forward at a fast pace, running towards the back of the Tank. In two steps he was at the thing's back, jumping into the air, and landing on its shoulder blades. Struggling to keep his balance on the creature's back, he jabbed his shotgun to the back of the thing's head, pulling the trigger. It blew through the thing's brain, spraying blood all over his chest and face. But the infected fell, Alex smoothly sliding off of the thing, much to the shock of the others, their jaws hanging.

"Well, lets keep moving," Alex said, slinging the gun over his shoulder once more and walking over to one of the open manholes in the floor.

There was only one way to go now, and that was down into the sewers. Alex frowned as he stared down the hole at the murky water flowing below. He could see several bodies floating by in the water. The bodies of infected. They were down in the sewers as well. Nowhere was safe, it seemed.

Sucking it up, Alex jumped into the sewers, landing with a splash. He took a few steps forward, sweeping his pistol's flashlight beam over the area. An infected look over at him from where it had been leaning against the wall, its eyes glowing. Letting out a scream, it started running towards him, but one shot made it fall. Splashes behind him alerted him that the others had decided to join him down in the sewers.

"Oh, this is disgusting," Francis groaned, holding his breath a bit as though that would keep out the stench in the air.

"Come on, lets keep moving. Hospital's on the other side of the waterworks," Bill said, taking the lead for once, Alex falling to the back of the group, watching behind them.

"We're almost out of here," Louis said, relief in his voice as he let out a small sigh, his muscles loosing tension just a little.

"Don't relax just yet," Alex murmured to him and the group, his voice like gravel and Louis cast his eyes to the ground, ashamed. The virus let it slide and they continued on their way. Rounding a corner they all pulled back when they saw the group of infected lounging about in the sewers. With a silent command, they moved forward, shooting them all down.

Francis crouched down in front of a tunnel through the wall, "We can go through here," he murmured to the group and they all got down, moving though the small tunnel. More tunnels and infected later, they found themselves standing in front of a red ladder leading up to the surface again. Gripping tightly onto the rungs, they all rose, joining the others up on the asphalt. There, in front of the, was the hospital that they had been searching for. They were so close. Finally. But yet they were still so far from safety.

"Safe House inside the hospital," Alex pointed out, seeing the familiar sign for one. They moved as one, going through the open doors of the entrance, all the while taking out the pursing infected. They rounded the counter and entered the room, slamming the door behind them. As one, they let out a sigh of relief. That part was over. Now they just had to survive until they got up to the rooftop all those stories up.

"Get refreshed, rest, tend to wounds… you know the basics," Alex said, taking a seat to inspect his own wounds. He peeled off the bandages, glad to see that without the help of his healing abilities, his wounds seemed to be doing just fine, if not healing a little too fast to be normal. As he put fresh bandages around them, he just hoped that no one noticed. Of course he wasn't that lucky. The sharp eyes of Bill didn't miss a single thing, nor did Francis's prying eyes, filled with suspicion.

Zoey seemed to be the only one oblivious, dutifully cleaning her pistols, stray strands of hair hanging in front of her face. Alex attached the last of the bandages and made his way to a wall, sliding down it and closing his eyes. He didn't need sleep, of course, but a little acting on his part wouldn't hurt. He evened out his breathing and, finally, the eyes moved off, focusing on their own problems.


	8. Chapter 7: Climbing to Heaven

Bill reached out, shaking Alex's shoulder lightly to wake him up. The virus merely returned from his thoughts, opening his eyes to a slit to stare at the old veteran standing over him.

"You might want to clean off that blood from the Tank, son, before we get moving," he stated gruffly, backing away. To be truthful, Alex had already forgotten about the blood splatter that had covered him after the attack he had given to the infected creature. Back in the past, he had constantly been covered in blood, so it didn't really bother him in the least besides the fact that it reminded him of the past. He got up, his limb a bit sore from sitting for so long. He needed to get back out there in the action. His body craved for it. He was returning to his former self, he realized grimly as he made his way over to the sink.

Looking down at the metal sink, he stared at his distorted expression for a while before flicking on the faucet. There was a pause before water started gushing out of the head. It was dirty water, but it would be good enough to clean himself off. Plus, someone had left some soap in the larger part of the sink. When he was finally done cleaning the blood off of his features, he let his eyes wander over the messages others had written on the walls to loved ones they had to leave behind.

MERCY HOSPITAL IS OVERRUN was written on one wall that he passed by, making his way toward the exit door. A TV sat on a small table near it. The electronic was on, but all it was playing was static, not even an emergency broadcast. He couldn't help but let a small smile tug at his lips when he saw something else written on the wall by multiple people, trying to make the killing of zombies into that of a competition, into a sport:

I KILLED

63

77 104 86

109 BITCH'S

53,595!

LIES!

Even in the darkest of times, humans could still find ways in which to pick themselves up, to make themselves smile. They were strange creatures, to say the least. He glanced back at the group, which was looking at him expectantly. They had hoisted a sofa up on its side, placing it over the door through which they had entered. This room was no longer a safe house for anyone that followed. They would be the last ones to enter. Making his way to the door, next to the vending machines, one which was still basically full, much to his surprise, he glanced out of the bars in the door, glancing down both sides of the hallway, where the infected were milling about.

He shot the ones that were close, making sure they really fell before lifting the bar out of its place and swinging the door open. Turning right, the made their way down the hallway, shooting and infected that lurked in the rooms on the sides, making their way to the staircase. A growl of a hunter met their ears, coming from somewhere in front of them and they slowed their pace, trying to spot the creature before it got to them. There it was, crawling out of the doorway where the stairs were. The group open fired on the creature as it jumped at them, dead before it hit the floor.

Alex rounded the doorway, glancing up the stairs. A few zombies were sitting around in the room, but a shot to the head and they were down. He started up the stairs, his footsteps sounding way too loud for his comfort. Luckily, it didn't seem to matter to the infected, anyway. They just ran at him once they noticed his flashlight over them. A pile of furniture had been stacked on the staircase, preventing them from going further. They would have to find the doorway to the part of the staircase above them. A bellowing noise met their ears and they piled out into the hallway, searching both sides for the Boomer.

As soon as it peeked around the edge of a doorway, Bill let it have it, shooting it down immediately with his shotgun. It exploded, spraying the floor with blood, which they gingerly stepped over on their way past it. The continued on their way, killing zombie after zombie on their way, finally arriving at the top floor that the stairs led to. There was still quite a ways up, however, until they would arrive at the roof, where the evac would pick them up. Alex's acute hearing picked up the sound of crying and he stopped, trying to figure out where it was coming from.

"There's a Witch up ahead somewhere, be careful," he hissed at his group, walking over to the counter to pick up a Molotov. This would come in handy against the witch if they met her.

"I don't hear anything," Zoey said, walking forward and cocking her head, as though that would help her hear better.

"Trust me, it's there. I can hear her crying," Alex moved forward, ignoring Francis's frown at his words. He knew that by using his superhearing, he was bringing more attention to himself, but it was better safe than sorry against an infected like the Witch. At least they could now prepare to meet up with her. He stepped over an overturned chair, sliding down the hallway as quietly as he could. The farther they navigated through the hallways, the louder the Witch got until, finally, the other survivors could hear her, too.

"Jesus, man! How the hell did you hear that all the way back there?" Francis asked Alex, shooting a zombie after he finished asking as though to make a point.

"Guess fighting in New York proved to be beneficial for me," Alex managed a smile, "The military does train you to open your senses."

"Well what I learned about senses in the Vietnam seems to be doing diddly squat compared to your senses," Bill countered.

"Guess you're just losing your touch, old man," Alex replied, managing to keep a joking twist to his words and Bill gave a goodhearted chuckle at the words.

"My senses aren't the only thing going with age," he huffed out.

The crying was louder now. The Witch was close, but where she was they couldn't tell. An elevator was at one end of the hallway, while the crying seemed to come from the other side. If they called the elevator now, hordes of infected would rain down upon them, and they would more than likely surprise and anger the witch by shooting up the place. They had no choice but to take her out now while they still had a fighting change without a bunch of infected running around, blocking their view of the raging infected.

He voiced his thoughts to the others and while they didn't look quite convinced, none of them tried to stop him as he walked to the other side of the hallway, seemingly on a suicide mission. Zoey and Louis were the only ones that really look extremely concerned on his behalf. He peeked though the doorway at the end of the hall, into a room that had yet another room attached to that one. He was about to take another step forward when the Witch's crying stop, changing into a growling sound.

She sensed him, but he couldn't see her. Risking it, he took another step into the room, glancing into the adjacent one to see if she was in there. But she wasn't. Her growl got more enraged, her breathing coming heavy. He turned, finding, to his horror, a corner tucked alongside the doorway, shrouded in darkness and far from anyone's eyesight if they just merely peeked into the area. And there she was, bathed in a red light that seemed to emanate from her very body. She was standing up now, her glowing eyes, the color of blood, staring him down. He backed up into the room, trying to get some distance from her, but it was too late.

With a scream that shattered the air, she raced towards him, her arms thrown out to the side, her claws catching the light in a terrifying manner. Immediately, he whipped out his Molotov, setting fire to the cloth in the mouth of the bottle, and chucked it towards the seething infected. Immediately, her flesh caught fire in a wonderful crackle of oranges and blues. He leapt sideways, rolling into the other room as she continued her run, slamming into the counter he had been standing in front of.

He brought his pistols up, shooting her with everything he had, unrelenting. Once out of ammo, he reloaded it at an inhuman speed. Luckily nothing but the Witch witnessed it, as she turned to face him once more, fire bursting on her, giving her a demonic look. The other survivors were shooting her from out in the hallway, but she only had eyes for him. He was the one that had disturbed her after all. He was the one who had set her on fire.

She charged with another scream, causing him to leap back, landing on the table in the room and filling her with more bullets. The room he had come from was ablaze now from her frantic running, spreading the fire even further. Another reload and within ten bullets she was down, the smell of her flesh burning stinking up the air. He coughed, inhaling the smoke that was clouding the air and quickly dashed off the table, sprinting through the other room and out into the hallway, all without catching fire.

"Now lets call that elevator, shall we?" He said with a smile once he met back up with the others, all of them with the same shocked expression on their face. Alex walked past them, dusting the smoke and ash off of his leather jacket as he advanced towards the other end of the hallway. A gurney was next to the elevator door, a pile of ammo on it. Obviously this wasn't the first time this had happened. He grabbed the ammo he would need, shoving it into his pockets as the others did the same, still throwing him curious glances out of the sides of their eyes. Placing his finger over the up button, he glanced back at them, waiting for the okay to go. Once he got it, he pressed the button and they heard the elevator shudder to life.

Screams erupted through the building as the infected ran towards the source of them noise and they all got their guns up and at the ready. The walls to the side of them were suddenly smashed though by the infected and they turned to gun down the ones running though the gaping holes. Others ran down the hallway they had come from, turning the corner in droves. For a while only the sounds of guns being fired and the screaming of infected filled the air as they waited for the elevators to finally make it to their floor. Damn this was taking forever. Were hospital elevators usually this slow?

He provided cover for Zoey as she reached for more ammo, reloading her shotgun. She gave him a grateful smile before bringing it back up, shooting an infected that was coming out of the wall behind him. He gave her one in return before they came back to the situation at hand, helping the others fight off the immense amount of zombies pouring out at them. A pile of carcasses were beginning to surround them on three sides from the walls and hallway, almost like a little fort made out of bodies. The thought made him frown. He really was a morbid person – virus – deep down still. He just hoped he didn't snap while he was helping these people.

Finally, the elevator arrived, signaling them of its presence with a small ding and they eagerly ran into the moving box, pressing the button of the floor they needed and letting out a sigh of relief as the door closed behind them, cutting off the noise of the infected still out there for the most part. They all leaned back against the walls, trying to recapture their breath as Alex reloaded his guns, getting prepared for whatever might greet them above. They would have to go through a construction area first before they actually made it to the room and, from there, to evac.

He would be leaving this group after that, making his way back to Cross to ask for his next assignment, which was probably babysitting another group of Survivors, making sure they didn't die on their way to an evac center. It was probably for the best, though, that he left this group. They were getting too suspicious of him. He stood out too much, contrasting against them.

"So I guess you did learn a thing or two from those horror games of yours, Zoey," he managed to say, breaking the silence.

"I can't get over how fast they all are, it's not even fair. I'm calling zombie bullshit on that, you know?" She giggled nervously before continuing, "They're not... allowed to be so fast."

"Well, if it makes you feel better, the infected in New York couldn't run worth shit. The more unique infected on the other hand," he tilted his head, clicking his tongue, "That's a whole 'nother story."

Before she could question what he meant the elevator dinged and the door slid open. Time to continue.


	9. Chapter 8: The Tast of Freedom No Mercy Part 6

They were about to step out of the elevator, but Alex threw up his arm, holding them back. They stopped and immediately realized why he had stopped them. An arm of a Tank could be seen in the doorway leading out into the edge of the building. This part of the hospital was under construction, boxes and construction material strewn around the area.

The only way through was past the Tank. There would be no way out of this fight. Alex bit back a sigh. He was getting really tired of these Tanks. They would be so easy to take down on his own, but when he was with others, he had to walk around as though tiptoeing so as to not call attention to himself. He snorted, accidently causing them all to look at him. Well, he was doing a bang-up job of that.

Slowly, quietly, he began reloading his shotgun and the others began to reload their weapons as well. Alex hesitantly walked out of the elevator, knowing that if he got too close to the infected, it would charge. As he moved, he got a better view of what was out where the tank was. A swift, steep drop straight down. There was no wall, only open space looking out over the stormy skies. Quickly, he began to formulate a plan in his mind. It would be risky and just plain stupid, but it would most likely work. The infected weren't really know for their thinking ability or lack thereof.

He turned to the group and whispered, "Now I'm about to do something really stupid, so please keep your distance so you don't get caught up in it, too."

Before they could ask him just what kind of stupid he was going to dish out this time, he took off running straight towards the open doorway. The Tank finally heard his feet and turned with a roar. Alex threw his body backwards, sliding under the Tank's arm and quickly jumping back up to his full height, continuing his path towards the edge of the building, hoping the hulking creature would follow him. He shot blindly over his shoulder at it with one of his pistols for good measure.

The whole building seemed to be shaking as the Tank decided that Alex had to die, following after him. Alex threw himself off the building, feeling as though time seemed to stop for a while. His memories flashed back to New York, where he jumped off buildings and over them with ease. Time flooded back and he twisted in the air so that he faced the infected as he plummeted down, throwing his right arm out. His fingers brushed over the edge of the floor and he gripped onto it tightly, placing his feet against the building.

There was another roar as the Tank followed in Alex's footsteps. Though, instead of grabbing ahold of the building again, it continued with its decent, roaring all the way down until it impacted against the pavement below with a loud thud. He held back the urge to laugh. He heard a few shots and the few normal infected that had been drifting around collapsed to the ground. One even tumbled off the building, joining the Tank in the streets below. He looked up as a shadow fell over him. Bill crouched at the edge of the building, arm outstretched.

Alex thrust his left arm up, gripping onto the veteran's extended hand. He pulled him back up onto solid ground and Alex scuffed his feet over the floor as though to prove to himself that it was back. The others just stared at him, though Zoey had a look of amazement on her face, like usual.

"That was like how they used to kill bison! Make them dive off a cliff!" She gripped her hands tighter around her pistols, her smile faltering, "But wasn't that a little too reckless? What if you weren't able to grab back on like that? What if you had kept falling?"

"Then the infected below would have made for a cushy landing. Now, come on, let's go. There's a safe house ahead," he pointed at the symbol for the safe house, turning their attention off of him for the moment and noted that they all relaxed visibly at the sight of the sign spray-painted onto the wall. The growling of a hunter met their ears and they immediately tensed up again, ready to shoot whenever it decided to show itself. They moved forward as a group, weapons at the ready. Alex saw it coming around a dark corner thanks to his enhanced eyesight.

Quickly, he raised one of his pistols and shot it right in the head. It slumped to the ground and, to distract himself from their watching eyes, he busied himself with shooting some other infected that were in the area, continuing forward towards the safe house like nothing had happened. He was just growing tired. Tired of shooting guns like a human. Tired of wearing this mask of his to fool others.

Tired of living like a human.

Mentally, he shook his head, scattering those dangerous thoughts. He was human now, whether he wanted to be or not. He has sworn to himself that he wouldn't go back to the way he had been back during the outbreak. He had already gone back to absorbing the infected, but that was because he was under direct orders to do so. He didn't really want to take a step past that and move on to humans. He knew that he would eventually if his anger rose. Many people had pointed out the obvious to him: his anger management wasn't the best. His sister had told him that the most. That brought up another reason why he wouldn't allow himself to fall back down.

He had promised his sister that he would continue to be as human as long as he could and he figured that the small amount of time since the last outbreak wasn't going to count as that long of a time.

They dashed around a few more corners, finally reaching the safe house and slamming the large metal door shut behind them. Collectively, they let out a sigh of relief except Alex, who just started piling things in front of the door with cool calculations. Once he was done with that, he retreated to a corner separate from the others, ripping his bandages off his wound. It was fully healed now, unfortunately. He had been able to hold off his healing abilities for only so long.

Discarding the bandages, he zipped up his jacket to hide any evidence that the wound was no longer there. Hell, even his body had mended his "clothes" without his consent. He grabbed some more ammo, reloading his guns as he did so. He shoved the extra ammo in his pockets and walked back over to his corner, placing his back against the wall. He slid down to the floor and sat there, closing his eyes as though he was sleeping. They wouldn't disrupt him in they thought he was sleeping and he knew that he had to take that to his advantage.

When he figured that the rest of them had had long enough to rest, he got back up to his feet and moved toward the exit. The others immediately got to their feet to follow after him like loyal dogs. He took the bar off the door, not even bothering to look out through the openings in the door. Throwing the door open, he marched out, taking out a few zombies within a few steps, his face grim as he made his way down the hallway.

The only creatures wandering the hallways seemed to be normal infected, but a belch from somewhere down the poorly lit hall told him that a Boomer lurked in one of the shadowed rooms. He continued walking and he knew they others were giving him odd looks and trading glances amongst themselves at his odd behavior. He just wanted to get out of here. He was starting to feel cramped after being allowed to us his abilities again, only to have to squash them back down once he was put on babysitting duty. His fingers were twitching to turn into claws.

The Boomer jumped out of the room in front of him, ready to vomit its bile all over the group, but he was ready. He pushed the infected backwards and jumped back at the same time so that it was a safe distance away before shooting it in the stomach, watching it explode all over the nearby surfaces. He traipsed forward through the blood and guts and the sound of crying met his ears. His frown deepened. Great. Just what he needed at that moment, another Witch.

He peeked down a hallway to their left and found the elevator shaft. Walking over to one of the vents at the side of the open elevator door, he kicked the metal and it gave. Getting down into a crouch, he slid through. The others followed him as he stood looking down into the darkness. The crying was louder now. The Witch was nearby, but he couldn't see her. The others whispered warnings amongst themselves and turned off their flashlights. Alex followed suit, his eyes working just fine in the dark thanks to his heat vision.

"Any of you have a Molotov by chance?" He whispered to them, trying to pinpoint the Witch's exact location. It seemed to be near the top of the ladder, but he couldn't truly tell if that was just the noise playing tricks on his ears in this enclosed place. They all shook their heads at his question and he held back a sigh. Looks like they would have to take down the infected Witch quickly with the good, old fashioned way. A bullet to the back of the skull. He slid his pistols into the back of his jeans and pulled his shotgun off his back.

He motioned for them to stay back, ignoring their expressions of fear and suspicion while he crept over to the foot of the ladder, peering up to the area above. He couldn't see anything, but the crying was definitely coming from somewhere up there. He placed one foot on a rung and paused, peering up, craning his neck to try and see more of the area up there. She continued crying, so he put a hand on the side of the ladder, tucking the shotgun up against his chest with his other hand. He went up a few more rungs and the crying still continued. It wasn't until he was level with the area above that the noise stopped.

A growl reverberated through the air, echoing on the metal surfaces. He glanced behind him sharply and saw two glowing eyes staring at him. Biting his bottom lip, he tried to make his way back down the ladder without angering her anymore than he already had with his presence. Rung by rung, he lowered himself back down to the platform below, but the growling still continued. Then, with a roar, he heard her leap up and run towards the ladder, intent on coming down and ripping them all to pieces. This time he didn't even try to stop the sigh that left his mouth.


	10. Chapter 9: The Last Stand No Mercy Part 7

Alex jumped backwards from the approaching infected, doing a backflip off the ladder and landing in a crouch. Since he was the one that disturbed her, she would focus entirely on him and not on the others. That was a good thing, at least. Better him than the- he shook his head. He really was thinking like a human too often now. With a side glance at the other survivors, their weapons raised and shooting at the Witch that was clambering down the ladder. So what if one of them died? Plenty of humans had died during his infection, many by his own hand.

Regardless, he had promised Cross that he would bring these people to safety and that was one promise he would have to keep. The witch landed on the metal platform and instantly ran toward Alex, her scream harshly clanging around the area. He dived out of the way just in time to escape her claws. They others were slower to shoot now, afraid they would hit him. He dashed toward the metal barrier, getting up on top of it and judging the gap over the elevator shaft to the open doors. He could practically feel her claws digging into the bag of his legs as she bore down on him, so he coiled his legs and leapt.

He landed on the floor outside the open elevator door, landing with a roll. The witch attempted to follow after him, almost making it all the way across, too, but Alex whipped his shotgun off his shoulder, took aim and shot a round right into her chest. The impact threw her back in the air and she fell down the shaft, her screams still echoing through the air until she hit the silent elevator below, smashing into it with a loud thud. It was quiet after that, nothing but the shaky breath of the other survivors could be heard for a while, but then the sound of a radio cut through the silence, reminding them of just why they were heading up to the roof.

"Keep moving," Alex ordered them gruffly, making his way back to the open air shaft to rejoin them. They snapped out of their stupor and awkwardly bumbled over to the ladder, making their way up the ladder. By the time he caught up to them they had already climbed up the second ladder to the roof. He joined them up top and they stared down at the infected milling about on the other parts of the roof. Pulling out his pistols, he started the killings. He shot the ones closer first and the ones whose interests were peaked came running.

Alex hopped down to destroyed helipad with ease, clearing the distance. He landed softly though, careful not to crack the pavement. He would save the cracking for when he was beating the heads of infected into walls. They cleared a path to the radio and Zoey picked it up, answering the pilot on the other end. Alex picked up some extra ammo, restocking his depleting supplies. As soon as he got rid of these humans, though, he would never run out of ammo. He readied his guns with a click and put them back in their places,

As he walked over, he heard the pilot tell Zoey to call back when they were ready. The others quickly got more ammo, exchanged guns, and prepared themselves before Zoey picked up the radio again. She glanced over at Alex for approval and he gave her a nod, heading towards the stairs to go to the roof. Once up there, he was glad to see a Minigun station at the edge of the roof pointing out over in the direction of the helipad, where the swarm of infected were most likely to come from. Louis would sure be happy that it was there. He heard the radio call downstairs end and they stomping of feet as they all rushed up the stairs to join him on the roof. Louis let out a happy noise, running over to the Minigun to get behind it.

Roars echoed through the building. The swarms were coming. It was time to get ready. Alex swung his shotgun off his shoulder, turning on his thermal vision so he could see the first sign of the infected crawling onto the roof. There, to the right. They were climbing up onto their level. Louis swung the Minigun over so the barrel pointed at the approaching horde. He started it up and it took a while for it to heat up but once it did, it ripped though the infected like they were nothing. He couldn't hold it forever, though. The muzzle was already turning a bright red, showing that it would overheat after a certain amount of time. The rest of the group shot the straggling infected that escaped the Minigun's bullets in the head to keep them at bay. The Minigun stopped, its whirring slowing. It had overheated and now the next group of infected was coming from the other side.

Alex ran over the pipes connecting their roof to the one next to them, firing down at the running infected with his pistols. It was easy enough to keep them at bay with both of them. When he had ammo that is. He slipped out the empty magazines and was sliding more back in just when the Minigun whirred back into action, mowing down the infected that were in range. At that moment a roar split the sky and the building began to shake. A Tank was coming. Alex sighed. Out of all the infected, the one he hated the most was the Tank with the Witch in close second. They were the strongest of the special infected, so it was harder for him to fake it all when fighting them, but he would have to put that mask back on again for this one.

* * *

A building away, the shadowed being watched them, taking especial interest in the man in the leather jacket. He was… different, unique. He was unlike anything it had seen before. All the toys it had played with before, teased, had broken. But this one stood up to the storm. In fact, he even smashed through it with ease. He was stronger than anything that had been thrown at him, he was a monster himself. The shadow smiled, a devious plot forming in its mind. It summoned some more infected to put its plan into motion and then drew back farther into the darkness to watch its idea unfold.

* * *

They had finally defeated the Tank and the pilot of the helicopter told them they were almost to the hospital. All they had to do was hang on just a little longer. If they could do that, they could get out of there and the humans would survive. Just a little while longer. He could handle that. As though he thought it too soon, the whole building shook and they had to stumble to keep their footing.

"The hell was that? Some kind of earthquake?" Louis yelled, keeping his grip on the Minigun steady as they waited for the next wave of infected to wash over the rooftops. Alex shook his head. It didn't feel like an earthquake… it felt more "manmade." Like what he would do back in New York. Something big was coming and it probably wasn't friendly. The shaking continued and the others grabbed onto a support to keep themselves up. Without hesitating, Alex took a running leap off the roof they were on, landing below in a roll, jumping back up on his feet. They others moved to follow him, but a quick shout from Alex put them back in their place.

He clambered over the helipad and glanced down the side of the building, dreading what he would see. Five Tanks. Five Tanks were climbing up the side of the building. But they were quiet. No roaring, no screeching, just quiet, meticulous climbing, their weight still causing the building to shudder despite their planned climb. It was as if the creatures had been taught a few tricks. One of them looked up and spotted him. He heard a grunt come from the creature and its muscles coiled as it prepared to leap up to the rooftop. They both moved at the same time, Alex and the creature. It threw itself upward to the roof while Alex threw himself back, flipping in the air and skidding over the helipad, his fingertips pressed against the concrete as he crouched, preparing himself for its attack.

The other infected Tanks joined the first one up on the helipad and the rubble around it. The survivors on the other side of the rooftop sucked in their breath in anticipation at the same time, audible to Alex's acute hearing despite the distance. He could also hear something in the distance. The unmistakable beating of a helicopter's blades. The pilot was nearing in to the hospital, but he wouldn't be able to pick up the survivors with these Tanks in the way. He had to lead them away from the helipad so the humans could have a clear path to where the helicopter would be sure to wait for them, even if would only be hovering on the outskirts of the helipad. There was no way for it to land on it, with half of it turned to rubble.

The Tanks were all looking at him, their attention no where else. His predator instincts went into overdrive. These Tanks were after him and there was no way he was going to let them bring him down. The smallest of smiles curled at his lips as he studied the infected. This meant that there was something out there, something better than them that was controlling them in some way. That thing was targeting him. Did it know him from the last infection or was it just interested in him. In any case – he looked out past the Tanks – that just meant that whatever was controlling them was watching them. They had to be near. He glanced back behind him and just barely saw it, the glow of something on the roof of the other building.

The first Tank roared, charging forward toward Alex, who nimbly jumped out of the way, breaking into a run toward the back of the roof which, unfortunately, also lead to the humans. The Tanks followed, grunting and still causing the whole building to shake with their movements.

"The helicopter's coming!" Alex yelled to the survivors, who were shooting at the chasing Tanks to no effect since there were so many of them, "I'll distract these idiots and you make your way to the helipad!" Zoey opened her mouth, so he added, "No questions, no protests. Just go!"

The other three didn't even think twice, they just ran toward an alternate route and Zoey had no choice but to follow them, casting glances back at her Professor as they ran to the helipad. These Tanks were definitely after him and only him. Now was the time to check just how much they wanted him. As the length of roof in front of him shortened, he felt his biomass gathering in his legs. No time to take back what he was going to do now. He heard Zoey yell his name as he neared the edge, probably certain he was about to throw himself to his death. He almost wished he could see her face when he jumped, though he had probably seen the same look on the faces of soldiers back in New York. He got ready to jump and in one release of power, leapt of the roof, soaring through the air.

He reached the targeted rooftop with ease, his landing causing the concrete to crack under his heavy density. Behind him, he heard the Tanks roars change pitch as they fell to the street below. They had tried to jump after him like the mindless creatures they were. They had been under orders to take him down, though, really, Tanks hadn't been the most subtle of predators. If it had been his call, he would have gone with an army of Hunters. At least they were more stealthy and precise than the clumsy Tanks. His eyes locked on his prey, which was backing away from him slowly, still hidden in the shadows, but bright in his thermal vision.

"Enough of playtime," he growled at the infected and it stopped moving, staring at him, "It's time for you to be consumed by me. I think you've been what I've been searching for. You're the one who will actually have information for me."

The creature smiled at him, moving out of the shadows, its form seeming to be twisting and curling, as if the infected was made of the very shadows it had been hiding in. The darkness curved up over the thing's head like a hood and he could make out the glow of eyes underneath the inky blackness. It reached out an arm, its hands looking much like Witch's, though its fingers looked less dangerous and long. Its skin was pale, as though it hadn't seen light in months, which was entirely plausible due to its twisting cape.

And then it spoke, its voice seeming to come from nowhere, yet everywhere at the same time, and its voice was not one, but many, "We have been watching you, we have also been needing you. You are not like the others, you are unique. Join us and you will prosper in this new world," It swam forward, now inches from him, but he didn't flinch, "Fight us, though, and you will fall," it placed a clawed finger to his chest over his heart. That is, if he had a heart.

Behind him, he heard the helicopter arrive. At least the humans were getting a ride out of here and on to safety. He swatted the arm away and the infected growled at his action.

"Yeah, I seriously doubt that," he sighed, wrapping an arm around the creatures neck and jumped backwards off the roof with the infected still in his grasp.


	11. Chapter 10: A New Kind of Infected

The survivors watched from the helicopter as Alex leaped the distance between two buildings and confronted some creature on the other roof. If watching his jump that far with five Tanks on his heels hadn't been enough to let them know that he was, in fact, not completely human, the clearly suicidal jump did. Zoey craned forward, trying to watch the two of them fall through the night, almost invisible in the black air. They watch as Alex twisted midair, so the shadowed creature was below him. The infected was letting out a strangled scream that sounded like it was raging.

When they finally hit the pavement below, which seemed hours later, the impact seemed to shake the whole neighborhood. Car alarms blared and the other infected immediately began converging on the place of impact. The infected Alex had slammed into the ground was still yelling, though its cries were weaker now, the fall having taken a lot out of it. They couldn't see much since the streets were dark, but the moon glowing down on the two below helped a bit.

They saw Alex raise a fist, then bring it down. The impact was discernable even at that distance and the crying quieted even more. Another hit from Alex and the crying stopped all together. The only sound now was the hordes of infected surrounding Alex. He hit it once more and then things seemed to sprout from his body, taking in the other creature as though he was… consuming it. Suddenly, Alex threw his head back with a scream of pain, his hands splayed over his face as his back arched. As soon as it happened, it was over and his body went back to normal, slouching over the blood smear on the road that had, seconds ago, been an infected.

He climbed to his feet just as the first infected attacked. With inhuman speed, Alex twisted, punching the leaping creature in the face. It flew backwards and didn't get back up. The rest threw themselves at him, their hands clawing at him as they squirmed all around him, battling each other to get a better piece of the man they were trying to attack. Alex was out of view now, buried underneath the hoard as they pulled him down. But, suddenly, the infected flew backwards as though hit by something and the survivors quickly saw what it was. Tentacles were sprouting out of Alex's body in all directions, impaling all the infected that had surrounded him, the shockwave taking care of the rest.

It was over. Just like that, he had taken out an entire block's worth of infected. Bill swore under his breath at the site, and Zoey looked down at the man she thought she once knew, fear in her eyes. That had been the power they had witnessed weeks before, the one that they said they never wished to meet. And they had been sharing sleeping space with him when he could have easily killed them all in their sleep without even blinking. She felt weak at the knees suddenly and felt herself falling forward, out the open helicopter door. Someone yelled her name, reached out for her, but she was numb and they were too late. As soon as she realized that she was falling, she let out a scream..

On the ground, Alex heard someone yell Zoey's name and looked up instantly, watching as Zoey tumbled out of the helicopter, a scream tearing at her throat. They had witnessed it all, what he had done. Even then, he still had a deal with Cross and Zoey was his student. Or had been. He could process what he had learned from the infected later. His first success with consuming an infected with the addition of learning something and the survivors had to go screw it up. Of course they had to.

He gathered his biomass in his legs and once it was at full power, he released it, flying up into the air. He plucked Zoey out of the air with ease and she looked up at him in shock first, not sure what was happening. But then her eyes widened in horror as she realized just who it was that had saved her. The shriek that came from her throat made him cringe and almost drop her again, but he kept his grip, landing on another rooftop and setting her down.

The helicopter was making no move to come pick her up. She was backing away from him, but he grabbed her again and changed his arm into the whipfist. She froze against him, thinking he was going to use it against her, but he merely whipped it out toward the helicopter, getting a firm hold on it before throwing them up toward the machine. The pilot tried to steer away from them, but Alex was upon him now before he could. Zoey screamed again, covering her ears and burrowing her face into Alex's shoulder, forgetting her fear of him for the meantime while they flew toward the helicopter's rotating blades.

Alex timed it perfectly, falling through the open door and landing inside with a thud. He let go of Zoey and moved toward the door, the rest of the survivors not moving, just staring at Alex. He slid the door shut with a bang and made his way up to the pilot. The man whipped around, a pistol in his hand and quickly fired upon him, emptying his gun in Alex's chest, who barely flinched. As soon as the pilot was done, he simply walked forward, snatching the gun out of the man's hand and tucked it in the back of his jeans.

"I need to get a call to Captain Cross. Can you patch me through?" He got no reply from him, so he just started reaching for the extra pair of headphones instead. That's when he heard the unmistakable sound of a shotgun being cocked. He didn't even have to turn to know that it was Francis holding the gun. He turned just as he pulled the trigger and this blast actually caused him to recoil a bit. Unfortunately, because it was a shotgun, some of the pellets didn't hit Alex. They hit the helicopter. The screeching emergency sound immediately started and the pilot struggled for control, moving the helicopter up and around the buildings.

Alex moved to tap the radio, only to find it dead now. He turned to glare at Francis, his eyes giving off a red glow, "You really shouldn't have done that, Francis," he growled. The man gulped and lowered the shotgun. Alex turned to look at the pilot and that's when he felt something shift inside of him. He quickly dashed out of the cockpit, his body twitching and moving, tendrils squirming around him. As quickly as it started, it was over with.

He blinked once, looking down at the cracked helicopter floor beneath him, hoping it wouldn't collapse until they got wherever they needed to go. His vision was different, he finally realized, looking back up at the humans watching him. The survivors were black, like they weren't there at all, blending into the background. But the pilot was like a Christmas light, all lit up for celebration and Alex immediately knew what he was seeing.

"You're infected," his told the pilot, his voice monotone as he relayed the news. The pilot jerked the controls momentarily in shock before he regained control once more.

"Wha-What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said. You're infected. I wouldn't be surprised if you started turning into one of them right now."

"One of them? Don't you mean one of you?" Bill asked, a hand on his gun, but he at least had the common sense not to shoot it.

Alex smiled grimly, "Believe me when I tell you that I'm a completely different infection. I'm from New York, remember?"

Something flickered by in the old man's eyes as he tried to process what Alex's words meant. By then, Alex had made his way back to the pilot, who was trying his best to steer the helicopter, his eyes straight ahead and away from the mysterious man aboard his aircraft.

"Look, I don't appreciate these mind games of yours or whatever they are. I'm just going to drop you off at the nearest safezone and be on my merry way after that."

"No mindgames. No merry way. You're infected and you're going to die. Now, tell me, would you rather die as a human or as an infected? Because I can certainly arrange either way," he made his hands change into claws to emphasis his point and they all took in a collective breath, "My eyes have evolved thanks to that infected I consumed back there. It used to be just the infected back from New York that I could pinpoint, but now I can see this infection as clear as day. And you, sir, are 100% infected."

The glow of the man began to change now, morphing into something else. Alex took a step back, watching the change.

"I do believe you're changing now."

The man flicked on auto-pilot and stood up, trying to reach his full height, but never getting over Alex, "Would you please throw yourself right back out of my helicopter? I can help you if you want because I am not infected. I am not changing. Everything about me is fine because it just has to be, it-" he stopped, his eyes wide as he let out a choking breath that turned into a hiss, his hands coming up to twist themselves into his shirt, clawing at the material. The man's eyes rose up, meeting Alex's, but they were no longer the eyes of a man. They were those of an infected, at least partially so. He lunged at Alex, who never even flinched as the man came toward him.

But, of course, that was when Francis decided to pull the trigger again, showering the cockpit once more with metal. With a quick flick of his wrist, he cut the head off the man and dove into the pilot seat. The last shot had shut off the auto pilot and now the helicopter was starting to spin out of control. He tried to pull it back to normal, but the damage had been done, the machine wasn't responding to him as he hoped it would.

"You know it's not quite smart to fire a weapon in a closed space. Not only are you all probably near deaf right now, but now this damn thing isn't flying straight."

Bill was shaking his head to get rid of the ringing as he staggered up to Alex, "Can't you control it."

"I know how to pilot a helicopter, but one that's shot full of holes and plummeting toward the earth is not really in my area of expertise. That's more of God's region and I don't believe in a God. If I were all of you, I would brace for impact. Now."


	12. Chapter 11: A New Road

Alex pushed a piece of shrapnel out of the way, making sure the survivors were still safe as he did so. The noise of the crash had attracted a lot of unwanted attention and he had less than a minute to figure out how to get these four humans to safety. Bill groaned and stirred, Alex immediately at his side as he tried to sit up. Giving him a hand, the old man got shakily to his feet. It wasn't until he was wobbling on his feet did he realize who had helped him. He recoiled momentarily until his eyes swept over the wreckage and the others, lying on the ground, new cuts and bruises all over their body. Luckily none of the injuries were serious.

"What the hell happened?" Bill asked, shaking his head to clear his thoughts."

"No time right now to recount history. Grab Zoey and run over there. I'll take care of the others. We need to get away from this crash site now unless you want to be a late dinner for a bunch of incoming infected. Go over there," he pointed off to an area to their right.

Bill didn't hesitate after that. He pulled Zoey up into his arms, her hair lolling back until he repositioned her. He glanced back once at Alex, who was pulling up the others, before running off in the direction that he had been pointed toward before, an abandoned train yard. Crashed trains littered the area, half of trains tipped to the side, forgotten. The yelling of infected was loud and he pressed up against a metal container, hoping none of them happened to pass by.

Bit by bit, what had happened was starting to come back to Bill. The crash, Francis shooting everything up, that new infected. He had immediately remembered what Alex had done as soon as he had been on his feet. Hard not to when the man of nightmares was pleasantly helping him up off the ground like he was just casually helping an old lady across a busy street. It gave him the chills, remembering what the man could do, but it certainly brought to light some of his actions and heroics. He had thought it as weird how the man acted as though nothing could hurt him and, after seeing the man get shot full of bullets, he had to agree. The man couldn't be hurt. Alex landed next to him at that moment, seemingly from a jump and Bill nearly had a heart attack at the sudden appearance, but managed to calm himself down once he saw the man, or whatever he was, had both Francis and Louis in his grasp.

As soon as he deposited the two men, he jumped off again and Bill almost shouted after him in a momentarily time of panic, but stopped when he saw the man land on a metal container not far away, his eyes scanning the area. The deeper frown that etched itself into his face wasn't very reassuring. He looked down at what he was one and immediately his face changed, understanding crossing it as he figured out what to do. He did a backflip off the container, landing out of view from Bill. The next thing Bill knew, the container was being lifted and Alex was jumping back, placing it down. Again and again, he repeated his actions until they were surrounded by the containers on all sides and he stacked them up, five containers on each side. He had erected a makeshift wall around them.

He sat down after that, as far away from the group as possible, sensing they would want some space when they finally woke up. But now that Bill studied him without caring if he got caught, he noticed that Alex didn't sleep. Sure, he closed his eyes and his breathing evened out more, but he didn't actually sleep, more like he just rested his eyes. Francis stirred next and Bill watched as Alex slid his eyes open to stare over at them. Maybe he did care about them, just a bit. When Francis sat up, spitting out swearwords as he did so, he immediately started looking for his guns.

"Hey! Where'd you put my gun? What the hell did-" the man stopped as his eyes fell on Alex and his blood drained from his face. Now he remembered and he tried to recollect himself, stumbling to his feet and almost face planting again as he lost his footing, managing to regain it at the last second, "Where the hell did you put my gun."

Alex stood up, recognizing a threat. It was a small threat, but it still existed, "Your gun? I do believe you dropped it after you shot the helicopter full of holes. It's probably back there in the burning wreckage if you want to go search for it. You'll have to climb over this and brave the infected, though I doubt you'll be able to even drag yourself out of here, much less survive the trek to your precious, dead gun."

"How are we going to survive without our weapons? Did you ever think about that?"

Alex threw out his arms as though to say 'Hello? Standing right here!' By now the others were stirring awake, sitting up to watch the argument as it unfolded.

"I didn't really think saving the weapons was the most important thing for me to save during the crash. You probably don't remember, you were too busy peeing your pants at the time, but I saved all of you just before the crash that you caused, by the way. I jumped into the back area just before impact and shielded you all from most of the crash. Yell at me all you want about how you don't have your dear gun anymore, but at least you have your life. Me? I don't have much of that anymore. My biomass is dangerously low."

They stared at him blankly and he sighed, "To put it in words that even Zoey will understand," she protested weakly at him, "If life were a video game, my health bar would be dangerously low."

Zoey tried to not laugh at the analogy that was obviously directed toward her, the video game player. Bill still look kind of confused, but it seemed he understood now a bit more.

"So, while you cool off and mutter a bit more about your guns, I'm going to be going," he jumped up to the top of the wall, "I need to eat before we continue and you all still need to rest," and then he was gone.

It was quiet for a while after he left as the others tended to their small wounds and mulled over Alex's words. Louis shuffled his feet awkwardly, getting up to stretch his back and limbs. Zoey got up, pacing their small safe area, trying to get feeling back into her toes and fingers. After an hour, they felt back to normal, but Alex still hadn't returned. They were just glad none of the infected had found a way to climb in yet, or a Tank hadn't decided to play bowling with their wall.

"You shouldn't have yelled at him like that," Zoey finally said, scratching her arm uncomfortably.

"Why? You saw what he was, what he could do."

"Yeah, but he hasn't hurt us, has he?"

"Not yet."

"He saved me. He saved  _us_. Or are you already forgetting that?"

"Doesn't change that he could have an ulterior motive."

"When we were on the helicopter, he asked to be put through to someone, a Captain. He obviously has ties with the military in some way. He wasn't lying about that."

"Well thank God he didn't lie about that at least!" The man threw his hands in the air in exasperation.

"Look, I'm just saying that maybe he can be trusted. I've known him longer than any of you have and all I'm asking is for you to try and trust him, as I am going to do."

Before they could reply, there was a loud thud behind them and they turned in horror, not sure what they would see. Alex had returned, bags of ammo, guns, and medical equipment slung over his shoulders.

"Took me a while to gather these all together, but here you are," he dumped them unceremoniously on the ground and took his leave again, back to what he had been doing the last time he took off, which was mainly wandering aimlessly to clear his head. He ate a few infected here and there to build up his strength again, but he didn't learn anything from consuming them. It seemed that the new infected were the only one that would actually provide him with anything useful.

He could see what it had shown him clearly in his mind. She was part of him now, just another voice screaming in his subconscious. But what she was screaming was the interesting part, what really got his attention. She was not alone. Brothers and sisters, that's what she screamed. Her brothers and sisters would get him. They would call up armies of infected to hunt him down, kill him, slaughter him just as he had done to her. If he was alone, he wouldn't be that worried, but he had humans hanging off him like unwanted purses.

The voice also spoke of a mother, orders they must obey. They had free will at times, but other times they were given commands to follow, all of them connected by some sort of psychic link. That was how they got around the orders so quick, told others about their observations and their progress on certain missions. Now that the earlier one was dead, her family was sure to notice the cut cord, the silent end, and they would come for him, just like she said they would. In a way, it all felt familiar to Alex, like he was back in New York. It wouldn't surprise him if this was just a strand of the Blacklight virus that had been modified by someone until this had been created, most likely by accident.

By the time he returned again, he was back to perfect health and the humans were faring much better, weapons at the ready and their feet getting restless. Without even asking, he moved one of the walls away, giving them space to walk through. They did so cautiously, looking each way for a sign of infected, while Alex watched them with slight amusement as their eyes darted over every dark corner and lingering on him for a while before darting away. He didn't blame them for fearing him. There was no one he knew that didn't fear him in some way. Even Dana had feared him and she had been Alex's sister.

"The fastest way is that way," Alex pointed, "The bridge is out a little ways down, but we can easily jump down from it and continue from there. It's the safest way, too," he added before any of them could protest and started walking forward, getting some guns of his own. He didn't need them, but he felt better with them, like there was still a chance of pretending he was human, though he knew that no longer was an option. But if they ran into other survivors, it would help so he didn't have to explain why he was the only one without a gun. Besides, they would feel better if he shot infected instead of curb stomping their heads in and then proceeding to consume their bodies.

The others followed him quietly, but he could feel their unasked questions beating up against his back. He ignored them for now. There would be a time and place for questions to be asked and answered, but that was definitely not this place. Right now he needed to continue and get these people where they were needed. He just hoped they wouldn't run into anymore problems along the way. But, knowing him and their luck, Hell was sure to rain down upon them. He smirked suddenly and the others looked at him warily. Oh, he was going to enjoy this. Just like old times.


End file.
